Goldman confirms buying Venezuela bonds after opposition cries foul

Guy Reyes

"We recognize that the situation is complex and evolving and that Venezuela is in crisis".

Venezuela opposition leaders are decrying Goldman Sachs Group Inc's purchase of bonds from the government of President Nicolas Maduro. The bank did not say in its statement how much it paid for the bonds; however, the Journal, citing unnamed sources, said the bank paid US$865 million for the US$2.8 billion in bonds, roughly 31 cents on the dollar. It has given oxygen to the Maduro regime. "The regime's decision to conduct this transaction was made under duress driven by its desperate desire to gain resources needed to secure weapons and other instruments of repression in order to stay in power".

The Venezuela government information ministry didn't respond to a phone call seeking comment.

"The total of 69 people includes those who have died as a result of looting and those who have died as result of accidents on the barricades", Romero said, as quoted by Venezuela's El Cooperante newspaper.

Shortly after the meeting, Venezuela's Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez stated that the "interventionist bloc in the OAS continue to be defeated by the honorable states of the region", announcing that she herself will attend the OAS general meeting set for June 19-21, in Cancun, Mexico with the support of the people of Central America, the Caribbean, ALBA nations and all of Latin America.

One - submitted by the United States, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Canada - asks the OAS to discourage the Maduro administration from convening the constituent assembly as now devised.

Tajani also characterized Venezuela's planned withdrawal from OAS as an act of "regional isolation that is harmful for the country".

"As hard as it may try, Goldman Sachs ... can not put lipstick on this pig of a deal for Venezuelans", Borges said.

In Venezuela itself, opposition protests continued their 60th day of protests against the Maduro government on Tuesday as a student march maintained the momentum of a movement calling for leftist president to hold elections and allow humanitarian aid into a nation struck by widespread hunger and shortages.

In the second month of nearly daily protests against Venezuela's socialist government, thousands of opposition supporters marched towards the center of the capital Caracas Tuesday, only to be tear-gassed.

Four years of recession caused by failing socialist economic policies plus the decline in global oil prices have battered Venezuela's 30 million people.

"The Organization of American States is considering action against Venezuela under its Democratic Charter for Mr". Protests against President Nicolas Maduro's government have left dozens dead in the last two months.

"We have to call things by their name, and what we have here is a country that, in fact, has ceased to be a functional democracy and this is a tremendously unsafe thing for the region", Videgaray said at the Americas Conference Series in Miami, Florida.

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The OAS meeting at the group's headquarters in Washington, however, was suspended because members could not agree on how to handle the Venezuelan crisis - a development that Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez celebrated as a victory.

The AN head's threats against Goldman Sachs are the latest in an opposition campaign to deter worldwide financial institutions from lending to the cash-strapped Maduro administration amid a severe economic crisis triggered by the collapse of global oil prices.

Maduro has said the protests are a violent effort to overthrow his government, and insists that the country is the victim of an "economic war" supported by Washington. Some soldiers and police officers have faced charges for killings during the protests and civilians have faced military tribunals.

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